0101 - The People and Their School District
The public schools belong to the people. The people govern the schools under rights guaranteed to them under the constitution and statutes of this state. The people exercise their proprietorship through the elective process. They elect state and federal representatives who establish - through the state Legislature and U.S. Congress - the framework of law within which the schools operate. And the people elect a school board to represent them and to determine local educational plans and policy and to establish publicly endorsed educational goals and objectives. The Jefferson Board of Education functions as an agency of the public within this framework.
The Board is mindful that the people are the ultimate governors of public education and that the Board is directly accountable to the people through the elective process. But the Board also believes that accountability is a shared responsibility involving students, teachers, the District Administrator, other employees and the people themselves as well as the Board. The Board therefore asserts these beliefs and expectations:
- Students should be trained at home and by the schools in order that they will learn to hold themselves accountable for their own lives, actions and decisions as maturing members of a democratic society.
- Teachers should hold students accountable for achieving (within the limits of each student’s abilities) the objectives of each learning experience.
- The District Administrator should hold teachers and other employees accountable for working with diligent effort and with intelligence and imagination in achieving the objectives directly related to their stated job responsibilities.
- The Board should appoint the most capable person available to hold the position of District Administrator and should hold him/her accountable for providing creative professional leadership and counsel in all aspects of the school district program.
- The Board should also hold itself accountable for carrying out its mandate to plan, to make policy and to lead in the identification of goals and objectives and the resources necessary for their achievement.
- The public should hold itself accountable for maintaining a vigorous interest in, concern for and constructive criticism of the schools; for electing the most able men and women available to represent them on the Board and in the state Legislature and U.S. Congress; and for providing the resources necessary for the Board and staff to accomplish the publicly-endorsed goals and objectives of the district.
School District of Jefferson